Plans to improve the world heritage site for tourists put its living culture at risk, say locals and campaigners
B
y noon, the sun is high over Petra, bleaching the coloured sandstone cliffs and temporarily emptying its celebrated ruins of tourists. Vines and a canopy keep the terrace of Mohammed Feras s cave home cool despite the searing summer heat rising from the rocky valley.
“I have lived here all my life. I’ve never been anywhere else and I cannot imagine not living here. This area is part of who I am and I cannot leave it,” the 44-year-old farmer and sometime tourist guide said.
Within months, Feras and dozens of other Bedouin from the Bdoul community are likely to have left the caves they call home. There is little place for them in Petra as it is transformed by a major development programme that aims to build new facilities, regulate an anarchic tourist trade and provide a better experience for the hundreds of thousands of visitors drawn to the ancient site.
